Risk of anyone-can-take output

[jl2012]

Currently, newly generated coins require 100 confirmations before it could be spent, since reward for orphaned blocks will never come back (if Gavin does not bail them out: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=156641.0  ). However, any transactions relaying on "anyone-can-take" outputs, such as

OP_TRUE

,

or

OP_HASH256 <hash> OP_EQUAL

face similar level of risks. In case there is a block re-org, a miner may grab these outputs for themselves. Should we also flag any transactions without using ECDSA signature as generated coins?

[Peter Todd]

Miners can already exploit  transaction malleability to screw up transaction chains so I don't see it as a big issue.  It's really not unlike a double-spend frankly.

Ultimately the 100 block rule is there because even without malice without the rule you're going to get a lot of chaos. Anyway the cost to have the rule isn't a big deal, that's less than a day.

edit: I'll also point out, this isn't specific to non-ECDSA transactions either: 1JwSSubhmg6iPtRjtyqhUYYH7bZg3Lfy1T

[pc]

Yeah, OP_TRUE and the like are the same as a widely-known private key. I don't see what advantage you get from treating them different at the protocol level, though I suppose a smart client could attempt to inform the user if a payment they received was more likely to be attempted to get double-spent than average, but I'm not sure the user would or should do anything different in that case anyway.

[jgarzik]

Yeah, OP_TRUE and the like are the same as a widely-known private key. I don't see what advantage you get from treating them different at the protocol level, though I suppose a smart client could attempt to inform the user if a payment they received was more likely to be attempted to get double-spent than average, but I'm not sure the user would or should do anything different in that case anyway.

No current client will tell the user "hey, I found an anyone-can-spend" nor list that in their balance.

Clients pattern-match output scripts, and only "see" ones with scripts they recognize.

All other transactions are simply invisible without special software to find them and spend them.